What are the different review states?

Teamflect uses review states to show the current progress of a performance review and who needs to take action next. Knowing how these states work makes it easier to monitor reviews, identify bottlenecks, and manage the review process more effectively across your organization.

Reviews created in Teamflect move through five possible states. These states help structure the performance review process and ensure consistency:

To view your reviews and their current states, navigate to the Reviews module from the left-side menu in Teamflect.

This is the initial state when a review is created. The reviewee (employee) completes their self-assessment by answering the questions assigned to them.

Once submitted, the review automatically moves to the Manager Review stage.

Use Case: Encourage employees to reflect on their own achievements and challenges. Self-reviews promote accountability and prepare employees for a constructive performance conversation.

​Best Practice: Provide clear guidance to employees on what “good self-reflection” looks like — e.g., linking achievements to goals.

Next, the reviewer (usually the manager) answers the review questions from their perspective, evaluating the employee’s performance.

Once finished, the manager can:

Use Case: Managers can use this step to identify strengths, address performance gaps, and align employee contributions with organizational goals.

​Best Practice: Encourage managers to release for discussion before finalization to promote transparency and trust.

Calibration ensures fairness across teams and departments.

After calibration, one of three outcomes is selected:

Use Case: Use calibration to minimize rating bias, especially when reviews influence promotions, bonuses, or pay adjustments.

​Best Practice: Run calibration cycles in a structured group setting (e.g., HR + leadership team) to align scoring standards.

Once the manager review is complete and the review has been released for discussion, the review enters the Ready to Finalize stage. This stage is not entered if calibration is enabled.

At this stage, reviewers can confirm the review is ready for discussion and then completion upon signature. This is the last checkpoint for further edits by both parties after or during a review discussion meeting, given that the calibration flow is off.

Use Case: This stage provides flexibility — organizations can pause here to ensure quality checks and review participants make further edits.

​Best Practice: Use this step to confirm compliance requirements are met.

If the template requires signatures, both the reviewer and reviewee must sign (depending on template configurations) before the review is finalized.

This step confirms that the performance review discussion took place and both parties acknowledged the results.

Use Case: Signatures are especially important in regulated industries where compliance records are required.

​Best Practice: Communicate clearly that a signature means “acknowledgement,” not necessarily “agreement.”

The last state is Finalized. Reviews in this state are locked, stored as records, and can no longer be edited.

Both reviewers and reviewees can view results, and HR can use finalized data for reporting, development planning, or compensation processes.

Use Case: Finalized reviews serve as an official record for HR files, succession planning, and long-term talent strategy.

​Practice: Follow up finalized reviews with goal-setting or career development discussions to keep momentum going.